Getting settled in Umbertide: the market

  We’ve had a few days just staying in Umbertide.  We have the current reality of COVID rules, with masks required indoors (although we haven’t sat inside at a bar or restaurant and been asked to show green passes), and many people wearing masks outdoors, albeit as chin straps in some cases.  We’ve had our Wednesday market with fewer stands and some of them rearranged, including reoccupying the space under the Rocca where the market was when I first moved here 50 years ago.  Here are some pictures.

Trip to Italy starts, September 2021

My last post here was about the trip planned for spring 2020 to Italy and Croatia.  So much has happened since then: my father died in February 2020; we looked for this trip to be a healing time, then COVID hit the world and we needed to cancel the trip.  We made the trip to Croatia in August-September 2020, and I posted a trip report to Slow Europe, where I won the trip as a prize.

We were looking for the chance to return to Italy; when we got our vaccines we booked the trip on rewards before Italy announced reopening: we had Premium Economy (PE) on American Airlines when it was available at a good mileage price, and the same class for a return on Iberia.  We were looking at going by COVID-tested rules for the American flight.

In June, we got word that our flight via New York on Sept. 8 was no longer operating, and we were rebooked via Philadelphia on Sept. 9.  I found that it was the restart date of the PHL-Rome flight, postponed several times, and not listed as COVID-tested, meaning we would need to quarantine on arrival even if vaccinated.  We were confident that those rules would not stay.  The one option to keep the trip on the 8th on American (and not connecting through another country, which could have more rules complications) from Boston would be via Dallas, which would be an unappealing routing and there were no PE seats.  We kept the PHL connection; at first the PE seats we were assigned were in the middle, which Margaret could not take, but pretty quickly seats on the side opened up.

Having our arrival delayed by a day also made us note that the trip was on the short side, and Margaret prevailed in our looking for a different return date.  With Iberia, it’s a major pain to get through on the phone, and when we did, there were no dates close to what we wanted in PE, and if we wanted to change classes, a phone agent couldn’t do it: we would need to cancel, get our points back, and start over with a new booking.

Knowing it could be a major wait to get the points back, the solution I came up with was to book a round trip out of Rome on the Delta non-stop to Boston.  The return for spring 2022 is on a placeholder date that we may well change.  Before too long, I was able to get the Iberia points back, and hope to use them for the next return when we can be sure the dates will stick.

As time approached, we found the testing requirement removed, then reinstated shortly before the trip, and we were able to schedule a rapid test at CVS at a place convenient to where we would be.  

We took our area bus to Boston the previous night, and got to the airport at 9 a.m. for our 12.50 flight.  I planned to get there so early because it takes time for agents to get all the required entry information in, but this agent got it done quickly and were at the departure gate way early, seeing two flights board before ours.  We had a flight to PHL in the front row of the Main Cabin, with extra legroom, but no cabin service because of expected turbulence.

We had a long way to go between gates at PHL. The gate posted was walled off; we waited at the gate across from it to see if it would open, and then one of the apps where I’d sent the flight info alerted me of a gate change, so we went to the new gate.  As more people showed up and boarding time got closer, they announced that passengers who didn’t have an orange sticker (basically everyone who didn’t originate at PHL) would need to go to the counter to get their vaccine cards, test results, and the Passenger Locator Form we’d needed to complete, verified—it wasn’t enough that our boarding passes already said “Docs OK.” The time required for this meant that we boarded after our turn.

We found nice seats, though; Premium Economy has been described as what Economy seats should be or used to be, but these were almost comparable to domestic First Class.  This was my first flight on a 787, and the air was more breathable than is typical.  When the restart of this route was delayed until after Labor Day, some said it was an indication that it wouldn’t operate at all, but in fact I gather it was because of a delay in delivering new 787s.  We were given true headphones and seatback entertainment, although that’s mostly been removed from American’s domestic flights.  We’d pre-ordered diabetic meals, although we aren’t both diabetic, and these meals were really nice, with both steak and chicken.  

I got a few hours sleep even with a facemask on, and we got a nice breakfast featuring a tortilla omelet.  We had a nice arrival in Rome a little early; we didn’t use the e-gates and the passport control agent asked to see our CDC cards (I’d heard that usually the check at departure check-in is enough).  The wait at baggage claim was on the long side, but we made it to the train that I considered the best-case scenario (in fact we got the one 15 minutes before), to get to Roma Tiburtina station.  I needed to find my way around the renovated station to get the train we needed to Orvieto. These trains were Regionali, so they didn't have the Green Pass check that the reservable trains have.

I’d put in the SIM card from the Italian provider TIM, but I continued to have trouble using it or seeing what credit I had.  Margaret had her phone on the AT&T Day Pass, and with it we were able to use WhatsApp to update the Orvieto garage that Cheryl had recommended on our arrival to pick up our rental car.

We arrived at Orvieto and one of the owners of the garage was there to meet us and get our rental, a good deal, started.  I followed the signs to Todi and, before long, realized that this was not the route I was familiar with.  If you can follow this, we were supposed to take SS448, the yellow road south of the lake, but wound up taking the back roads above the Parco Fluviale, through Colonnetta, Prodo, and Doglio.

Here we took the route that wasn’t the most pleasant to drive after an overnight flight, and we got to Umbertide and our house, finding that our helper had prepared it well.  The Wi-Fi wasn’t working after a few years of not being billed for it.  For my own connection in a jet-lagged state, I went to the electronics store and got my phone re-established with a TIM data plan working as a hotspot for other devices, but we still wanted something more like Wi-Fi for the house, and would need to consider options. 

Some people say that it's adequate to have data on a phone with a hotspot, but we saw problems with that: starting with power draining on the phone, and that we'd want to be in contact when we're in different places.  Renewing our home Wi-Fi would have problems of paying for time when we're mostly not here, and waiting for a service call to get started.  I looked into getting Wi-Fi from the phone company TIM, which would have the same problems at a higher price.  Maybe there's more to look into, but I remembered the service we used once, Expresso Wi-Fi.  A search indicated it was replaced by OneMyFi.  I put in an order on Saturday, slightly worried that the live chat was down but attributed it to the weekend, hoping all would be well.  On Monday there was still no confirmation, I searched more, and found that OneMyFi is no longer in business, but they still take PayPal payments.  I am working to resolve this money taken from me; in a hurry I looked at other options, and there may be better ones, and wound up with HipPocketWifi.  It got shipped from France in two days and there were problems getting it started, but with support I have it going.  It also has a data allowance that might be a challenge, but we'll see how it goes.

So far we haven't done much: I'll start with this picture: Rocca di Umbertide.

The return home

It was the morning of our return flight, and we had an afternoon departure; we could still have our leisurely bar breakfast.  I had arranged an airport transfer through Rome Shuttle Limousine.  I made the request based on the apartment's published checkout time of 10.30, but they told me there that we could have stayed until 11.   Anyway, I wanted to get down before the appointed time, because we were on small streets where vehicles couldn't easily hover.  I found the driver there; he had parked on the Lungotevere, which we could access by steps.

The fare had been set at €50 if a Mercedes E-class sedan was sufficient, €60 if a minivan was required.  Even with an extra bag, I was confident that the sedan would work; still, this driver came with a minivan, and we had a nice ride with a €50 charge, which I could put on a credit card because I requested it with the booking. 

At Fiumicino, we took advantage of the service to wrap our bags in plastic, and got to the Vueling checkin counter for passengers needing special assistance, trying to stay together while some people tried to charge between us. It may have been a little early for our flight to check in, and it raised alerts that we each were allowed two free checked bags because of being in Premium Class on the longer segment; they called to verify and we were o.k.  We had another waiting area for a wheelchair, which eventually showed up and got us to our posted gate.

A previous flight boarded, and the next flight on the board was something after ours.  Word got around (no announcement) that our gate had changed; we got to our new gate and didn't have seats together.  The we first boards got down the first ramp and needed to wait for disembarking passengers.  Then as we went up the ramp to the aircraft door, we were blocked because of another "situation," and it was confusing what was happening, but we finally boarded.  The flight went smoothly enough to Barcelona.

On arrival there, we had assistance and boarded a motorized cart.  We didn't have our boarding passes for the LEVEL flight home; the driver stopped at a counter with our passports and got our passes.  There was an elevator to the floor where we cleared exit passport control and got to our gate, once again one without seats together.  In our original plan, we were going to go into Barcelona during our long connecting time; now we didn't even have time to pick up a snack before boarding as we'd hoped.

The signs posted that boarding would start an hour and 15 ahead, and there was again a confused boarding process.  There were lanes for boarding, including for the small number of Premium passengers, but no call for those needing assistance.  In fact, we were just in the first group to board the bus, which filled up to take us to the plane parked at a remote stand.  We then walked to stairs put at the front and rear, glad we were capable of that, and got to our Premium seats.

While the LEVEL boarding processes were disorganized (sometimes handled by local contractors), the inflight experience was nice.  The dinner was a beef stew dish, which Margaret liked enough to want to replicate at home.  On the way to the lavatory at the front, we saw the crew putting together what looked like nice jamón serrano, which we were hoping would be the late snack, but it didn't turn up for us.  The seat-back entertainment worked well enough for us.  We landed, cleared border controls easily enough with Global Entry, and had a hotel for the night in the Boston airport area.

Once we were home, I was ready to book the next trip, which I've done: next spring, an award on Iberia with Premium Economy to Madrid to connect to Rome. After time in Umbertide, ferry from Ancona to Split (with some hesitation after I read things about the ferry and boarding process); on arrival in Croatia, ferry to Hvar for our prize week.  Then ferry to Dubrovnik for three nights; I've booked a return flight by converting credit card points to United, and getting an award with a first segment on Croatia Airlines to Frankfurt, connecting on Lufthansa to Boston.  After one good trip, looking forward to adventures in the future.

Extra days in Rome

Once it was known that we'd have these two extra days in Rome, the Navona Nice Rooms weren't available to us.  In starting to look up where we could stay, it came to mind that we could hope that trip delay insurance could cover us for these days, and we thought of nicer places to book, starting  with the Hotel Mozart where we'd booked last year but didn't go when the trip was postponed.  I reserved on their site, it appeared to be confirmed, but there wasn't an email confirmation.  I called on Sunday about it, and they said to check later; I'd get confirmation once the card was charged.  There was still nothing on Monday morning, when we would be getting ready to move there.  I called and they said they didn't have room for us, they'd emailed that but I never got it.

We were left scrambling for where to stay; I was finding good deals on Hotwire and Priceline, where we wouldn't be given the property name until we committed to it, but Margaret wanted to search for known places, and it was useful to search for B&Bs and apartments in our familiar neighborhood.  As we focused on one, availability for a regular room went away, and they just had a 2-bedroom apartment.  We went ahead and took that.

It was too close to our old place to get a taxi, and one walk with all our luggage was going to be difficult, so we made two trips to our new location, Gonfalone 6.  We had a friendly greeting and marveled at the size of the apartment, although it wasn't quite ready.

It was nice to keep staying in our familiar neighborhood and mix recognizing familiar places and having new discoveries.  We had lunch at Osteria della Moretta, which I'd walked by during my years of school but never tried or heard of others going there; it had likely changed its style since then, but it was nice.

In the evening we crossed the river to return to Da Giovanni, getting a nice view during the crossing.

In the morning, Margaret chose to stay home; I wondered about using the time and chose to go someplace where I doubted Margaret would want to go, the MAXXI or Museum of 21st Century Art, something newish that I thought I should see although it was of more interest for the architecture than the collection.

Many of the galleries inside were closed for setting up new exhibits; there was some mildly interesting photography.

I had used Google Maps to find the right bus routes there; for the return they suggested walking one direction to start, and I was distracted first by the church of Santa Croce in Via Flaminia (1913), then by the Palazzetto dello Sport, built for the 1960 Olympics and which I knew since childhood as of interest for incorporating geometric shapes, now looking grimy.

While stopping to look, I'd missed the bus that Google Maps had first advised, and started on their advice to go the other way for another bus.  I was on the way to missing that, went back in the original direction, and caught that bus.  I'd bought tickets at a newsstand to validate on the bus (confusing to put them in the right way) and there are other ways of getting bus tickets now.

We had lunch from groceries we bought yesterday, did a little more neighborhood walking, to get us to dinner where I'd chosen Giulietta Vino e Cucina.  It wasn't such a traditional restaurant, something of a salon setup with cushioned chairs, but it was a nice final meal in Rome.  We have our return flight tomorrow.

Soriano to Rome, and extra time

On Friday morning there was the Soriano market.  Pictures include pre-dawn pictures as I added a ticket to the paid part of the lot.

In the afternoon we went to Viterbo: another fairly large and active city, interesting to wander the old streets without too much in mind.  I'd located the Parcheggio del Sacrario to park:  Waze routed us through a narrow street.  On exiting, I missed a turn at the start, and what should have been an easy drive to the main route became a harrowing journey through the city: a narrow arch and difficult turns, and entering Soriano through the unfamiliar side.

On Saturday, it was time to check out.  We got the car loaded and took off for Rome Fiumicino airport.  We took our chances with the fuel warning light coming on, and filled it at the full service pumps at the usual spot where we do that on the G.R.A.  On this gasoline car, the price was a little over €100; it would have been a little less if we were sure the fuel would last to the airport on their refueling option.  Hertz was on Level 1 of their garage, as I recall less travel up the ramps than before.

It was time for Emily to go to her flight, and we got the taxi into Rome, to our small B&B Navona Nice Rooms.  It's a complex of three rooms on an upper floor, and the small elevator only worked with the staff's key.  There was a young earnest staff, and air conditioning and breakfast served in the room, but our coffee preferences were sometimes botched.

I need to mention something else that came up: that word came out of another strike at Barcelona airport affecting Vueling flights.  We saw the list of Saturday cancellations on Thursday evening, on Friday there were emails in Spanish that weren't really right, referring to our inbound travel date, but then the Vueling app showed the Monday flight being changed to a Tuesday night flight (useless for connecting to our Monday evening LEVEL flight) and during Friday/Saturday overnight hours the full list including our Monday flight showed with our flight cancelled.  I had tried to be proactive earlier with all involved airlines.  Iberia, through whom the booking was made, said nothing to do in spite of the Vueling change I was showing.  I'd contacted Vueling through Twitter and they indicated they could provide a hotel and arrange the change of LEVEL flight, but it was somewhat unclear how that would happen, with their site indicating Iberia controlled the reservation.

On Saturday morning, with the flight on the cancelled list, I called Iberia for a change and they said they didn't have official notification of the cancellation, to try again after noon.  I did that once we were in Rome, and they still didn't have it posted.  We asked about a supervisor: one would be available after 6 (noon Miami time).  We were starting to wonder if we'd need to take an early morning trip to the airport to show up for a flight we knew to be cancelled, so we wouldn't be counted as no-shows.

Finally in the evening I called and they acknowledged the cancellation.  This agent said the best he could do was put us on the same airlines two days later.  It was difficult to communicate with him, as I was interested in other Iberia-LEVEL routings that could have still gotten us home Monday, and about European Union rules requiring care during a delay, but all he said was that if we found another way home on our own, we could get a refund, and I wasn't ready to deal with that.  We had to remind him that we were on a Premium award, so we could get seats in the Premium cabin, row 3 rather than 1.

So we'll be in Rome for an extra two days and we needed to find other lodging.  These days we've eaten at restaurants under our B&B, where we have memories from our high school days, and done more wandering in the area.

Villa Lante pictures

Composing on the iPad gets confusing: here are  Villa Lante pictures.  Then we got caught in a downpour returning, including the walk up from our Soriano parking spot.

And on to Soriano

We closed up the house, and as we started the car in Umbertide, I noticed a ticket on our windshield.  We were ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot, although we had a handicapped placard, from the U.S. hanging from the mirror, rather than on the dashboard as done in Italy.  I took a picture of this, and jumping  ahead in that matter, this was Monday; when we got to Soriano, I got the Umbertide police’s email address and emailed the picture with an explanation.  Without an email reply, I called on Wednesday morning; when I got through, the lady said she’d gotten the email and the ticket was cancelled.

Anyway, we took off to meet Emily at Orte station, were a little late, and proceeded, guided by Waze on Apple CarPlay, to the familiar lot in Soriano nel Cimino.  We were welcomed at Palazzo Catalani, where Emily has a timeshare, including the handyman taking our bags from the lot to our apartment in his small utility vehicle.  We have a nice 2-bedroom apartment.  We had some food we brought over to eat on arrival, and had dinner at the property restaurant.

Tuesday we went to Tarquinia with the Etruscan Necropolis outside of town, and museum in town, and had a lunch in town.  A little episode before parking at the Necropolis: we started to park at a spot marked reserved for apartment residents, then decided not to, and lights went on the dashboard with warnings of imminent engine failure.  We went cautiously to a more appropriate parking spot, visited the Necropolis, and no longer had the warnings.

On Wednesday we stayed to explore Soriano, and had a disappointing restaurant lunch.

On Thursday we went to Villa Lante nearby at Bagnaia di Viterbo, an interesting estate built into a hill.